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“And what’s keeping you from making the decision?” Alexis asked.
“Well,” Frank began, his eyes narrowed to near sleeping slits and his voice taking on the timbre of a dusty professor. “It’s a long, cold walk home.”
“Did you want company?”
“Are you volunteering?” He barely got that last word out, and his eyes remained closed to slits.
Alexis shrugged her shoulders suggestively.
“I get the feeling that you would lead me to a bad, bad place,” Frank said with a dry chuckle.
“You’re possibly right.”
“I also,” he let his head roll back and took another drag from the nearly done cigarette. “I also have to pee really bad, and that last time I tried that on foot, in this kind of condition, I ended up with a very wet shirt.”
“Charming.”
“Sorry.”
He went to take another hit off of the cigarette, and realizing it was at its end, threw it to the ground with frustration. Alexis reached into the small purse hanging off of her shoulder, pushed past the freshly purchased bottle of hair dye, and grabbed her pack of cigarettes. She opened the box and offered one to Frank.
Frank looked at the choice of cigarettes before him and once again swayed as if his own personal tropical storm were blowing him about. He looked into her eyes, as best he could with his own narrowed so close to closed, and laughed. He plucked a cigarette out of its crowd of brethren and placed it, eventually, into his mouth.
“We have not officially met,” Frank said around his newly gained, unlit cigarette.
“No we have not.”
Frank stuck out his hand. “Frank,” he said, as if he were slightly embarrassed in saying it.
Alexis smiled demurely, took his hand and curtsied slightly. “Alexis.”
“It is truly a pleasure,” he said.
Alexis reached back into her purse and grabbed her lighter. She lit his smoke and one for herself.
“Can I be honest with you Alexis?” he asked.
“Sure,” she smiled through a cloud of exhaled smoke.
“If I were to meet you again, I may not remember it. Part of it would certainly be that I’m fucking drunk as drunk, but a larger part would be this sick shield I carry around. I would convince myself we had not met so that I would not be hurt when someone as beautiful as you didn’t remember me.”
“Wow, I’m unsure how to reply to that.”
“Just take it easy on me when we see each other again.” He pointed his cigarette towards the road that would take him home, and began to move his feet to follow his hand’s lead. “And I hope it’s soon Alexis.”
“Did you want company for that walk?”
“Naw,” he turned his head back towards her. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that. Have a great night.”
Alexis leaned against that stairs and watched him stagger away. Just as he was rounding a corner and moving out of sight, she was finishing her cigarette.